Due to the obstruction of the Tianshan Mountains, I wanted to come from Shuanghe County where Ma Lin was located to the Yili River Basin, and then arrive at the Suiye River Basin. The best way to walk north along the west bank of Yanpo (Abi Lake), pass through the west bank of Ashi Lake (la Lake later), and turn southwest at the end. From then on, it will be a prairie area, which is easy to walk very much.

Of course, whether in the Han Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty, from Shuanghe to the south and along the south bank of Jinghu (later Sailimu Lake), there is also a post road that crosses the western end of the Tianshan Mountains.

This post road roughly coincides with the 312 expressway in later generations, so I naturally felt at ease when I passed through it. However, in this life, the altitude of the western end of Tianshan Mountain is more than 1,000 meters higher than that of the Shuanghe area, which is not so easy to cross.

Ma Lin still chose to walk along Yanpo and Ash Lake. When he was the Du Yuhou of the Beiting Protectorate, he often set out to the remaining part of the Western Turks in this way. The Sesheti tribe, one of the five right wings, inspected the swamp, to the south, the Geluo tribe, the north of the Rehai (Isek Lake), and to the south, the Saiye River Basin.

If you walk like this, you will have to reach Talas, and the journey is still two thousand miles, but the road is flat and you will arrive in ten days if it is fast.

Ma Lin took five hundred light cavalry in Raole camp and one hundred benevolent and Yongdu, and walked through the grassland like this. What he saw along the way was the scene he had turned a blind eye when he was the Du Yuhou. Now it looks exactly the same, but Ma Lin's mood is completely different.

Sun Xiurong suddenly changed his marching route and directly took down the Beiting Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty. It was too shocking for him. Then his series of actions, such as placing Bai Xiaode in the Hanhai Army, confronting the Yizhou Army of the Tang Dynasty through Shatuo's troops, placing Nan Jiyun in the western end of Jinshan where there were only Hu people around, guarding Luntai County himself, and building a large-scale construction there, seeing that it was about to strangle the important road from Gaochang to Beiting.

"This is to completely take over this land. Such an arrangement is naturally due to the fact that the Hu generals are not very at ease with the Han generals. Otherwise, with his or her performance in the Sui Ye army, he should put himself in Luntai near the Tang Dynasty."

"But no one can speak for him when he does this. He personally takes Bogda Camp to guard Luntai, which is also his intention."

The grassland west of Tianshan Mountain in May is the best season of the year, with grasslands flying and beards and cattle and sheep everywhere. After the Saiye Army captured Beiting, it immediately surrendered to Sun Xiurong in Shuanghe County and nearby nomadic Shosheti tribes. To the north of Shosheti tribes, near Chile Camp and Shiwei Camp, there were also the Geluo people who moved there. The pasture had already penetrated into the jas people in the Doros River (Erthis River) basin, as well as some of the Kimak tribes.

In winter, the Sui Ye Army captured the Qihe River Basin in Beiting and shocked too much. In addition to the Shesheti tribe, the Hu Luju tribe in the upper reaches of the Yili River, and the Mukun tribe near Rehai all surrendered to the Sui Ye Army and sent envoys to Luntai to save Sun Xiurong.

Even so, everything must be seen as the truth, especially after five years of separation, Sun Xiurong was still a little nervous, let alone Li Fei Shouyu, who was nominally the garrison of Suye Town in the Tang Dynasty? After taking down Beiting, he did not see him come to pay a visit. It was really suspicious.

So he asked Ma Lin, who was in the westernmost part of Beiting, to take Su Xijie to Talas to see what happened.

Also, he hasn't seen Nan Gong Xiaoyue and his son for more than five years. At this time, his only son, Sun Jirong, is six years old, and I wonder how he has grown up?

Talas, Ashi doesn’t come to the city, how has the development of Suoye City been? Has the number of farmers nearby increased? How do the officials there view themselves now?

Everything was very uneasy. Although Sun Xiurong was sure that as long as Li Fei Shouyu took control of the power, everything would not change, there were Feng Changqing, Hou Qi, Yuanfeng, Li Jincai, Shi Yunu and other generals there. They were no better than Li Fei Shouyu, and they were all from the Tang Dynasty soldiers.

There is also the talented man Yuwen Yongnu from the Southern Bow Division. He arranged for him to preside over Ren Yongdu in Talas and assist Xiaoyue. What is going on?

Originally, he wanted to go there himself, but then he thought that after losing Beiting, the Tang Dynasty must have been furious and did not take charge in Luntai himself, and it was not very stable after all. In the end, he decided to let Ma Lin escort Su Xijie.

"How will the Grand Commander plan next?"

Along the way, Ma Lin was thinking about this in his mind.

"The Tang Dynasty will definitely not sit idly by, but now the situation of Dalang is already in place. The Shattered Ye Army of eight camps, plus 15,000 farmers and the Muslim soldiers, the total number of soldiers is nearly 40,000, and the combat power is extremely strong. With the cannons, thunder and other objects developed by Dalang, they are probably better than the Tang army at the moment."

"The Tang Dynasty wanted to defeat Dalang and then recover Beiting. Without 50,000 field troops, there was no way to do it. However, the only ones who could mobilize the army were the Shuofang Army, the Hexi Army, and the Longyou Army. These three armies had 60,000 or 70,000 military strength. If half of them were removed, it would still be possible."

"But the situation in Mobei is so complicated at the moment. Can the court really draw half of the military strength of the Shuofang Army? Also, Longyou and Hexi are all prepared for Tubo, by the way..."

When Ma Lin suddenly thought of something, the Longyou Army was naturally prepared to deal with Tubo, but the Hexi Army was Tubo, with both Mobei and Mobei. Now the Basimir tribe was divided into pieces. The original Qibi tribe and Sijie tribe were moved to the Tianshan area. The entire southern foot of Wudejiao Mountain was completely empty, and it would be unnecessary to place a large number of troops in Hexi to deal with Mobei.

So the Longyou Army was asked to do its best to deal with Tubo. The Hexi Army only had to guard the key pass at the Qilian Mountains Pass. In this way, half of the troops could be drawn. In addition, the troops of the Shuofang Army who remained near Lingzhou to suppress the Tuyuhun, Dangxiang Qiang and other tribes could be drawn 10,000 or 20,000.

"In this way, 50,000 elite soldiers will be successful!"

"But if you want to do a good job of dispatch and prepare food and grass, you have to wait until autumn, because the entire Hexi garrison and officials need the support of food and grass to be completed. If you want to send troops to Beiting to fight, you may have to send a large warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue on the road."

"Of course, there are still 100,000 elite soldiers near Chang'an. If the Holy Emperor... the emperor made up his mind and did not transfer the Hexi Army or Shuofang Army, and only used the Imperial Guards, they could directly mobilize food, grass, equipment, and civilians from there, but no matter what, they would have to wait until autumn."

"Dalang, Dalang, you're such a vicious plot. Even if the Tang army is coming, it will be half a year later. In autumn, not only will the training of the Saiye Army's additional personnel mature, but 15,000 soldiers can also be drawn at any time! If the total number of herders is as high as 60,000, the total number of military forces is not something that the Tang army can compete with today."

"The past era when Hou Junji, Xue Rengui, Su Dingfang and others marched westward was the era when the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were the sharpest, and most of the Turks were just light cavalry. How could they compete? But now..."

He suddenly thought of Gao Xianzhi.

"As soon as Cheng Qianli died, Gao Xianzhi would probably take over as the governor of Xixi. With his temperament, in the case of more than 30,000 elite troops in Gaochang and Anxi, he is very likely to risk the Northern Expedition. However, with the efficiency of the court, the official appointment has just been issued. Even if he is surprisingly brave, he will have to wait until autumn."

"However, with Dalang's cunning, Ren Yong must have arranged for secretly to contact the Tubo people. It is not easy for the court to do his best to deal with him."

When Ma Lin thought of this, he couldn't help feeling ashamed.

"Dalang was very concerned about himself and married the Turkic princess to me. Now it is said that I am still brother-in-law with him, so why are you still thinking about the Tang Dynasty?"

"But after all, I was born in the Tang realm since I was a child, grew up in the Tang realm, and I spoke in Tang language and read in Tang books..."

"Well, since Dalang asked me to guard the western foot of the Tianshan Mountains, I was facing the rest of the Western Turks. At present, Dalang is at the peak of the sky, and the Western Turks' obedience is even more powerful than the previous Western Jiedu governors. What's the difficulty of a single camp being able to obey them?"

Just when Ma Lin felt lost, Su Xijie next to him would be focused.

Unlike Ma Lin, her father comes from the Nishi tribe of the Western Turkic right wing, and her mother comes from the Axijie tribe of the Left wing, and her name comes from Sun Xiurong. Su Xijie, who is a "remnant" in the Western Turkic world, is thinking about Sun Xiurong's previous advice.

"Xijie, remember. You should listen more, ask more, and watch more along the way. Not only did you observe in Talas, but the tribes on the grassland are also excellent observation objects. It would be fine if you were just a member of the Beiting Protectorate. They were directly affiliated with the Beiting Protectorate, but the Alishi tribe, the Bow Moon tribe, the swamp Geluo, and the Nangong tribe are all excellent observation objects."

"In addition to herdsmen, there are also farmers, ordinary officials, military generals, in addition to Li Fei Shouyu, Feng Changqing and others should also pay attention to observation. Well, by the way, Yuanfeng and Yuwen Yongnu were I deliberately stayed in Talas when I was a slave. These two people should not have a big problem, especially Yuwen Yongnu, who should check the news as soon as possible."

In addition to the two of them, there were also two people following them, naturally Cen Shen, who was arranged by the court to serve as the judge of Suye Town, and Li Bai, who was preparing to go to Suye Chuan to "nostalgia".

Sun Xiurong's sudden capture of Beiting made Li Bai, who was originally careless, lose his former charm. After coming to Beiting, he looked in a state of dismay. As for Cen Shen, who was already worried, he was as stupid as a day. Naturally, they did not dare to go to Gaochang, so they had to follow Ma Lin to Suiye Town.

Su Xijie was also surprised, "It is said that the news that the Khan's occupation of Beiting had long been spread to Talas. Why didn't Erlang go to Luntai to pay a visit? Erlang is definitely not a person who is ready to start a new job, and he doesn't have the ability. He has always followed the leader of the Grand Commander. With Ren Yong's source of information, he should have known it a long time ago."

In this way, everyone walked towards Talas with their own thoughts. With Sun Xiurong's instructions, Su Xijie slowed down and asked the chiefs who came to pay homage to him along the way, and asked about the herdsmen he met. He arrived at the Alishi tribe ten days later, which is the area around Almaty in later generations.

"Xijie, if the Talas area can still be used by me, then it would not be appropriate to set up the capital in Luntai. It is best to be in Alish or Hu Luju, and you can also check it out carefully."

(Alishi, later Almaty, Hu Luju, later Yining City)
Chapter completed!